Month: August 2008

Some linkies for you on your boring Sunday afternoon of gluttony and television! It’s a holiday weekend so we probably won’t be doing much on these interets for a couple days. So enjoy it, folks, and eat lots and lots so we may live vicariously through you.

Mitch McConnell says Palin is a good pick and the rest of the country giggles. Check the last paragraph with quotes from some racist kid. [WFIE]

More on the firing/forced resignation of Gilbert Newman from the Transportation Cabinet. This isn’t looking too pretty for the KYTC. [State Journal]

In an editorial the Herald-Leader says there has been no progress but partisan gridlock since the 2006 crash of Comair Flight 5191 in Lexington. [H-L]

You’re in Kentucky, right? So you’re familiar with the daily discovery of a meth lab in your neighborhood. If you’re a regular viewer of the A&E program Intervention, you’ll appreciate this screwed up video of Kristin Chenoweth playing an interventionist for a meth head. It’s kimd of hilarious. [YouTube]

Kentucky will be caring for potentially 4,000 thousand Hurricane Gustav evacuees. Steve Beshear and Jerry Abramson are turning it into a photo op, of course, and will “visit” hurricane evacuees shortly after 1:00 P.M. today. Yes, the Governor & Mayor had the gall to send out a media advisory about it. [C-J]

John Cheves has uncovered a perfect example of the sickening misdeeds and terrible leadership of Mitch McConnell.

While McConnell opposing USDA inspectors for the Tennessee Walking Horse industry may not seem like a big deal on the surface, we encourage you to read up.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pressured the U.S. Department of Agriculture for years to back off its enforcement of the Horse Protection Act, even threatening to cut the agency’s funding, according to documents obtained by the Herald-Leader.

McConnell has supported the Tennessee Walking Horse industry in its battle against USDA inspectors who look for evidence of soring, the illegal practice of deliberately injuring a horse’s front feet to get it to step higher in an exaggerated style known as “the Big Lick.”

-SNIP-

At the same time, the industry gave McConnell tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and hired his Senate chief of staff, Niels Holch, as its Washington lobbyist and attorney.

-SNIP-

Holch, the McConnell aide turned lobbyist, declined to comment.

-SNIP-

In a curt 1998 letter to the USDA, McConnell said the industry was upset about government inspectors — the industry canceled an important horse show, he said — and he warned the agency that he would cut its horse-protection budget for the next year if it didn’t give primary authority for soring inspections to the industry.

We are reluctant to criticize Bruce Lunsford, whom we consider a friend and all-around good guy. But. We’re two months out from election day. If something doesn’t happen as soon as possible, it will start becoming clear that Bruce Lunsford is only in this race to force McConnell to spend his wad of millions in Kentucky. If the Lunsford campaign doesn’t stop vetting every single word ever uttered by Bruce, progressives and other Democrats are going to start giving up in droves.

Contrary to popular belief amongst Democratic leadership, voters ARE paying attention right now. Kentuckians aren’t dumb hillbillies who don’t have a clue about what’s going on. They’re consuming and digesting everything that comes out of this senate race. And they’re left wanting more.

It’s time to step up to the plate. Maybe not time for the bloodied, red meat of the final two weeks of the race. But it’s almost a month too late to start framing McConnell. It’s nearly too late to begin typecasting him as the problem. Playing nice just doesn’t work.

We spotted this fancy interview of soon-to-be former chairwoman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, Jennifer Moore, on a bicycle in Denver. Take a look at it and pay close attention to the videographer joking about assassination just days after the brutal and terrible situation in Arkansas. Not even WE would talk about something so stupid. And then enjoy the infomercial about riding bikes.

Sorry, but, uh… Jennifer Moore and the KDP had jack shit to do with Heather Ryan winning the endorsement of the Progressive Patriot Fund. It’s a flat out fraud and lie to suggest that Jennifer or the KDP had anything to do with it. Heather won it on her own accord, thanks to her own promotion and her own dedication. [How Embarrassing]

Whattya know… Nancy Rodriguez does a story about the various emails exchanged between Robert Felner, Shirley Willihnganz and Jim Ramsey. Interesting. We hope she really filed open records requests for those emails and didn’t just yank them from this site without attribution. [C-J]

I read with great interest a story this Wednesday about Greg Stumbo’s ambitious attempt to become Speaker of the House. In the story, Larry Dale Keeling attempted to paint the picture that Stumbo is outworking current Speaker Jody Richards in his bid to head the State House.

Keeling quoted from a story Bill Bartleman, who wrote:

“Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, was one of the first people to call Renfro on Saturday after she was picked. He also invited her to a luncheon he hosted Monday in Frankfort to introduce House candidates to potential campaign donors.”

And went on to say himself that:

If Stumbo is helping D House candidates find the folks who can help finance their campaigns, it’s a pretty solid bet he indeed will try to unseat Richards.

So Greg Stumbo hosted a luncheon for Democratic House candidates that connected them with major campaign donors. Interesting. Never satisfied with what I read in any newspaper, I started to dig.

Beyond what Keeling says in his story, I have been able to determine that the eight candidates who attended Stumbo’s luncheon were: Tommy Thompson, Larry Clark, Dennis Keene, Zana Renfro, Mike Lawrence, Martha Jane King, and Kent Stevens.

That’s all interesting and fine and dandy, right? Right.

But what’s most interesting is what Keeling leaves out of his story.

That luncheon was held on Monday at the lobbying firm of Southern Strategy Group on Shelby Street in Frankfort. The firm of Leigh Ann Thacker, a lobbyist who, according to reports, once (or still does) date fellow lobbyist Gene McLean, the king of the casino/horse racing/beer lobby and tight friend of Greg Stumbo. Meaning that Stumbo was connecting Democratic House candidates with lobbyists who then gave them campaign contributions or promised to raise money for them. Meaning Greg Stumbo and the eight others– who included Larry Clark– skirted, if not outright broke, ethics laws galore.

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